Roundup: Water and peace, plant and mission, worship and participation, Paul Simon

Water conflicts pose threat to global peace

Conflicts over water threaten peace in the world, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, told a gathering in Germany on the banks of the River Danube to mark the end of the WCC’s Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV).

English Methodists with too many buildings

“We are at our best when we regard our ‘plant’ as resources for God’s mission rather than an inheritance to be preserved at all costs like the family silver.”

Throw out dry tradition

Churches should rip up the pews and encourage real participation, and make the act of worship again.

‘So Beautiful or So What’ … so Christian?

So Beautiful or So What, which was released in April to wide critical acclaim, is one of the most beautiful, gracefully powerful and memorable collections of spiritual musical musings in recent memory.